CultureFoundry is a start-up that empowers indigenous communities by offering tools that enable language revitalization and the transfer of linguistic heritage to future generations. This is how I improved their design inside and out.
Goals
Fix what's there & set-up for the future
CultureFoundry saw the urgent need to empower indigenous communities with an engaging digital language platform. However, while they had built a foundational version, the product was being designed on the fly which made future planned designs a headache to adjust for. I was hired to fix that.
1
Design for longevity, easy maintenance, and future adaptability.
2
Ensure a seamless and predictable user experience across all platforms and touchpoints.
Research
Who are our users really?
One of my first moves was to set up a systemic way of conducting user research to ensure longevity & consistency of design were achieved. The community was thankfully very helpful and responded to our surveys and participated in 1-1 interviews.
Learners
1,000
Teachers
50
One of the key results from this effort was the segmentation of our users. CultureFoundry had only a vague idea of who their users were and what their pain points were. I suggested segmenting the users into four personas which would later lead to us creating 4 distinct experiences focused on the needs of each.
And as a bonus…
This work helped the business operations team decide which user was the paying customer as the company was very determined not to charge learners or teachers for using the platform.
Problems
Rushed work damages the learning experience
I first conducted a heuristic evaluation which revealed a significant number of usability issues which prevented the platform from having a seamless and predictable experience.
>4 clicks to get to the content.
Navigation is guess and check.
Little room for added features.
No apparent labeling.
Imagine a student wanting to come back to this experience.
Imagine a teacher trying to give instructions to 20 of their primary school students where the lesson on consonants is.
Problem #1
66%
Teachers reported their students got bored of the platform after using it for a while.
Problem #2
89%
Teachers found it hard to perform tasks like checking their students' reports, editing lesson content, and creating classes.
With the problems clearly defined by the research, I was ready to solve them.
AND
My Impact
My work at CultureFoundry proved to be very valuable for CultureFoundry. Unfortunately my time was cut short before I got to see quantitative results, but key stakeholders had this to say about my work:
“Martin laid the ground work for CultureFoundry's upcoming scaling efforts. Thanks to him we can confidently reach out to more indigenous communities in Canada and the U.S.”
Chad Quinn
CEO
“Martin brought structure to a chaotic situation without letting any of the good ideas slip through the cracks. His work was precisely what CultureFoundry needed at the time he joined.”
Laura Goodyear
Design Lead
Looking back
My time at CultureFoundry was truly enriching. I got to contribute and practice my eye for design to a product that I believe to be doing a very needed good. I am particularly very grateful to members of the Anishinaabe as I feel I've gained an entirely new perspective through our 1-1 interviews.
This project strongly solidified my passion for using design to create transformative experiences that impact lives and empower communities.